Bob Sacamento

Dozier has one opposite field HR this year (and that just happened last week or so), the rest are pretty much pull homers. I think everyone knows what you're getting at this point with Dozier, he's arguably the most powerful 2B in MLB right now but won't hit for average (.250 or below) and plays decent defense at 2B.

I speak enough to get me around a history and physical examination in my office, plus I know their ESL teacher at the complex so she'd gladly help too.

I'm not Seth but I talked to Stephen for about 10 minutes on Saturday after his start in Instructionals. The biggest difference he said this year was feeling more secure in his changeup, he went from throwing it 10% of the time in 2014 to 27% of the time in 2015. Not much of a relationship with Berrios from what I can gather, Zach Tillery and him seem to be tight. He misses his downtime surfing in Cali. He plans on adding muscle with his workout regime but also keeping his flexibility.

It's that time of year again, where the minor league season is winding down but new life and a new season are just around the corner. Just like adolescence, the Instructional League is often an awkward yet still pivotal period in a player's developmental process. The bulk of the players that are in the FIL are new to the organization, they were taken in the 2015 draft and just got their feet wet in the GCL and Short Season Elizabeton. Pretty much they were coached on the fly, now in the FIL the coaching staff gets to work in-depth with the players and their deficiencies. Of the 44 players in camp, 16 of them were drafted this year. The new draftees aren't the only ones in camp. The rest of the roster is comprised of players who missed time due to injuries, players getting ready for AFL/Winterball, players working on new positions, pitchers working on new pitches then there are the headscratchers. A player who had a great season, reached career highs, has been to Instructs before and seemingly doesn't have much to work on. Over the past four seasons of watching Instructs, I've seen the light bulb go on in quite a few players and make amazing strides in their game. I've seen Jose Berrios further develop his changeup, I've seen "roving coach" Paul Molitor show off his abilities to inspire, I've seen Derek Rodriguez the hitter and Derek Rodriguez the pitcher, I've seen Adam Brett Walker work on his bunting, and it goes on and on. During the past week, I was fortunate enough to see a Camp Day in addition to two games against the Red Sox. Camp Days are often various offensive, defensive, baserunning and pitching drill sessions broken up into groups sets. When I showed up the offensive players in camp (minus a few playoff bound team players) were participating in various slide drills. Instructor Joel Lepel was in charge and had Jermaine Palacios as his lead example for every technique. Lepel always picks a few players out and razzes them more than others. The day's pick was Kolten Kendrick or as Joel referred to him as "Cottontop", the meaning could be several different choices but we'll just go with Kolten's hair looks like a red cottonball. The slide difficulty slowly progressed from straight hands up, to sliding past the bag with extended arm, to barrel-rolling, and finally breaking up a double play. Visually, it was appeasing as the player's starting points were staggered off in domino fashion, starting to run as the other descended for his slide.Catcher Robert Molina took the sliding serious enough that he split his pants, literally. Afterwards, the players took to the batting cages. Later on, Twins took on the Red Sox at JetBlue Park where the game was highly attended by nearly 20 scouts, everyone from Twins' front office members Scouting Director Deron Johnson, Lead Scout Mike Radcliff as well as scouts from the Rays, Astros, MLB.com, Yankees. Fernando Romero started the game going 2 inning before being relieved by Brandon Poulson for two and flamethrower Johan Quezada. Of the bunch, Romero looked the sharpest, locating his fastball while Poulson and Quezada were both erratic yet also popping 98 mph. I swear I've seen Poulson throw every weekend this summer, he shows off a high octane fastball but he doesn't know where it's going most of the time and his slider's even worse. It got bad enough at times that he was strictly throwing fastballs. Still the organization sees enough raw talent that they've kept him around despite his numbers. Johan Quezada is another strong arm in camp who is still growing into his body and frame, yet still throws up big velocity numbers. On several outings in the GCL, Quezada showed a fastball that hit 100mph and a slider in the upper 80's. As one would expect, with all the moving parts to a 6'6 and still growing physique that repeating his delivery has been a problem. The hitting side was lackluster for the most part, but Nick Gordon collected a couple hits, and Zander Weil took a charge into the deepest part of the park for a flyout. In the field, Flash Jr. displayed extremely quick hands and a strong accurate arm while covering plus lateral ground. Gordon has a first step in the field that allows him to have plus range. Jorge Fernandez was behind the plate and threw out a couple of would be baserunners with his strong accurate arm. The lineup consisted of CF Christian Caverness, SS Nick Gordon, DH Jermaine Palacios, 1B Zander Weil, C Jorge Fernandez, DH Brian Navarreto, LF Lamonte Wade, RF Daniel Kihle, 2B Sean Miller, 3B Luis Arraez. Rafael Valera was the warmup catcher for the weekend, just trying to reps as he put it. On Saturday, the small crowd was treated to a special matchup of Twins top pitching prospect Stephan Gonsalves and Red Sox phenom Anderson Espinoza. Both held the opponents scoreless for two innings and looked good. Deron Johnson came away saying he was impressed with what he saw from Gonsalves in his brief stint where he walked one and as he put it "picked off his first baseman". Stephan has a good move to first and Kolten Kendrick was not expecting it. After the game and the trainer got to stretch him out , I talked to the big lefty about his year and what he's doing for Instructs. According to the Catholic Cathedral HS grad, the key to his season was his changeup. Going into this year, Gonsalves threw his fastball maybe 10% of the time. After working with coaches last year in Instructionals, he started to feel more comfortable with the offering and threw it 27% of the time this year. That impressed me, not only seeing his change take a step forward but also that he knew exactly how often he threw it this year which tells me they stressed it in is exit interview at the end of the regular season. The biggest question I think both of us had was, what is he doing in instructionals. He's not working on a new pitch, he hit career highs in innings pitched already; the consensus that the two of us drew was that he's just getting further stretched out for next year. All in all, I'll be back next weekend as the Twins and Red Sox will once again take on each other!

The two are good friends, Palacios' english is more advanced between the two, Luis is a nice kid who has a good eye at the plate and good glove. I'd say upside as a utility infielder 2B/3B/SS.

Yeah the glove has improved to average, he covers his ground and he has a strong arm and quick hands that allows his defense to play up at SS.

Palacios gets some love despite being at #17: BA synopsis: -signed for only 70K -good bat control -good strikezone judgement -smart hitter, gamer, high baseball iq -swing designed for linedrives -makes routine plays at SS, strong arm, quick release

Another middle infielder in the GCL, 2B Luis Arraez was named to the All Rookie League team as top 2B by Baseball America. 18yo, in 207 AB, posted a line of .309/ .377/.391/.768 with 19BB, 10K, 8/16 in SB. In the Instructional League right now, playing some 3B as well.

PLAYERS/STAFF REPORTING DATE: Wednesday, September 16 FIRST WORKOUT: Thursday, September 17 FIRST GAME: Monday, September 21 LAST DAY: Tuesday, October 13 2015 MINNESOTA TWINS INSTRUCTIONAL LEAGUE SCHEDULE Mon Sept 21 CAMP DAY – 1pm Tue Sept 22 MIN @ BAL – 12pm Wed Sept 23 CAMP DAY – 1pm Thu Sept 24 BAL @ MIN – 12pm Fri Sept 25 MIN @ BOS – 1pm Sat Sept 26 BOS @ MIN – 10am Sun Sept 27 OFF Mon Sept 28 MIN @ TAM – 1pm Tue Sept 29 MIN @ BAL – 12pm Wed Sept 30 CAMP DAY Thu Oct 1 TAM @ MIN – 1pm Fri Oct 2 BOS @ MIN – 1pm Sat Oct 3 MIN @ BOS – 10am Sun Oct 4 OFF Mon Oct 5 TAM @ MIN – 1pm Tue Oct 6 BAL @ MIN – 12pm Wed Oct 7 CAMP DAY Thu Oct 8 MIN @ TAM – 1pm Fri Oct 9 BOS @ MIN – 1pm Sat Oct 10 MIN @ BOS – 10am Sun Oct 11 OFF Mon Oct 12 BAL @ MIN – 12pm Tue Oct 13 MIN @ BOS – 10am

During Spring Training he was worked hard on the backfields at 1B with Coach Sam Perlozzo, grounders in the 1b--2b gap, covering 1b, holding runners on, etc. Even when he was with the MLB club early on in spring, he was working with Mauer at 1B. So I'd say it was by design that he played so much at first.

Having seen Palacios play about 10 or so games in the GCL while on his hot streak, everything he put a bat on seemed to find a hole in the infield or bloop down in the right spot, or just inside the line. His BABIP was an insane .464 in the GCL and .375 in Eliz meaning I don't see it holding up. Personally, I think I might have mentioned this before but he kinda reminds me of Starlin Castro of the Cubs, swings early in counts while sitting on the fastball, he's not going to walk much, not going to strikeout much, not going to steal a bunch, makes plus contact, can play SS but is probably better off at 2B in the long run, the biggest question I have on him is power development and that should increase as he puts some weight on his frame.

He received coaching but I'm sure he'll be taking in more in Instructs as in GCL they pretty much let him go as he was in college (Pitt). On the Pitch f/x at Jetblue his FB 91-94mph with a 2100-2300rpm and a 78-82mph SL with a 2300-2500rpm that plays up even more with his extension and delivery. As a 36th Rounder, he's lotto ticket

Condeelis on mound in GCL Lachlan Wells on mound in GCL

For those who don't know, Cabbage got hurt towards the end of the GCL season. A stress reaction in his lumbar region (lowback), they at least caught it before it turned into a spondy/pars fracture which is the good news. The bad news is after talking with him he's predisposed to the issue due to hamstring tightness and hypertonic lumbar muscles, as he's very inflexible. He is already in the rehabbing process but won't be ready for game action til the end of instructs so he's just sitting out. I gave him my personal recommendation of pilates and yoga to help with his inflexibility issues. A few of the players told me they will returning to the complex today, 9/16 to begin camp.

Last year they did with Buxton and Meyer

Condeelis has a very deceptive delivery and a high spin rate, he needs to hammer down a consistent release point and he's an intriguing reliever. I'll be on the backfields this weekend just to see what's going and it's free

I can tell you for certain there isn't one in GCL and I'm fairly certain there isn't one in Hammond Stadium (Ft. Myers) at least as of yet but I'll confirm with Florida Operations Manager Brian Maloney this weekend.

As a baseball fan who lives close to several Spring Training Complexes as well as Florida State League teams, I get to see many of the organizations' "behind the scenes" scouting and how the Twins' still evaluate their players is quite interesting and perplexing to me. Whether it's intentional or not, the club still seems very old school in terms of MiLB and draft analysis much more than their counterparts. Case in point, Baltimore and Houston use state of the art evaluation equipment of spin rate out of the pitcher's hand, exit velocity out of the pitcher's hand as well as off the bat. This is the same equipment, that Trackman uses when scouting Perfect Game Tourneys (high school kids). TrackMan Measurements Pitch Release -- Extension -- Release Slot --Angles --Classification --Velocity Pitch Movement -- Spin Rate Breaks --Spin Axis/Tilt --Trajectory Plate Location -- Time Of Flight Approach Angles --Location --Velocity Batted Ball -- Distance Velocity --Position at 110 feet --Launch Angles -- Exit Speed --Trajectory --Bearing --Hang Time --Spin Rate In comparison, the only quantitative measure I've ever seen out of Twins' head of scouting Mike Radcliff, Scouting Director Deron Johnson, and a few other Twins' scouts are stopwatches and Radar Guns. Elsewise it's strictly the eye test and trusting your scouts. Guess that's what happens when you have basically the same crew running the show the past 20 years. Am I the only one who seems to be bothered by this?

Ya don't forget Kohl was a football first guy and was slated to be Johnny Manziel's backup at Texas A&M before the money talked to him in baseball and was drafted as high due to his "high ceiling" and tools. He started working on the sinker more often after the 2013 season, to the point now it appears he's throwing it as often if not more than his power slider that used to be his strikeout pitch. For his age and level, his development is apt just not were many had wish he projected when the team took him so high. Yeah the Twins gave Gonsalves 2nd round money (700K, slot was 480K). Completely forgot about the character issue which stems from being present when HS teammates smoked marijuana after a tourney and lying about it to protect his friend. You want character issues that's much more a Kohl Stewart issue than Gonsalves, Stephen has been nothing but nice and outgoing with the fans with a great work ethic. Gonsalves always gets a plus for being a lefty and it's looking like he can stay in the rotation. He's also quite the surfer he was happy to be in Ft. Myers for the possibility to surf but complained about not the best waves here.

They say: Arm soreness has limited Kepler to first base but is an above average outfielder. That his power is finally starting to show not just his contact; this is breakout year with his smooth pretty swing Polanco looks like a 2B unless his reads improve and his quickness; as he grows he's better suited for 2B. He does have good abilities to both sides of the plate, controls the strike zone and makes constant contact.

He didn't sign til September of 2013, there is nothing official which usually means pretty low probably 10K-30K but that is purely a guess.

True, most of the spring, Meyer was working with pitching coach Eric Rasmussen on his finer points and playing around with a splitfinger and working on his change

This is what BA Midseason Top 10 had to say about Berrios and Stewart: 2. Jose Berrios, rhp Berrios earned a promotion to Triple-A after averaging 9.13 strikeouts per 9 IP at Double-A. He’s got 95-96 mph when he wants it, sinks his fastball at lower velocity, and mixes in his slider and changeup well. His long arm action leads to inconsistencies but he throws enough strikes to be a starter. 6. Kohl Stewart, rhp Drafted as a power pitcher, Stewart still is throwing hard, but he’s become a groundball pitcher as a pro, rather than getting lots of swings and misses. In his second full season, he’d allowed only one homer and had a healthy groundball rate (more than 2-to-1). So don't write off Stewart just yet, he might not be the 9 K/IP that once was thought but he's turning into much more of a pitcher than just thrower

MIDSEASON TOP 10 1. Miguel Sano, 3b/dh 2. Jose Berrios, rhp 3. Jorge Polanco, ss/2b 4. Max Kepler, of/1b 5. Nick Gordon, ss 6. Kohl Stewart, rhp Drafted as a power pitcher, Stewart still is throwing hard, but he’s become a groundball pitcher as a pro, rather than getting lots of swings and misses. In his second full season, he’d allowed only one homer and had a healthy groundball rate (more than 2-to-1). 7. Stephen Gonsalves, lhp Gonsalves has a frontline starter’s ceiling thanks to an excellent 90-93 mph fastball, aided by good deception, that has angle and finish. His changeup remains ahead of his hard, hybrid breaking ball. If he spins it better, watch out. 8. Adam Brett Walker, of Walker rivals Joey Gallo for the title of Most Raw Power in the Minor Leagues. He may lack a real feel for hitting, but Walker was leading the minors in home runs and resembles Houston’s Chris Carter as a potential future .220-.230 hitter with 25-30 home run production. 9. J.T. Chargois, rhp 10. Nick Burdi, rhp Burdi challenges Chargois as the hardest thrower in the organization as well as the entire minor leagues. His slider reaches the low 90s at times as well. Burdi hasn’t learned to read which hitters’ swings yet or adjust when they are catching up to his heat, but his two plus pitches should get him to Minnesota’s bullpen soon. Rising Taylor Rogers, lhp: lefthander, Mat Batts, Falling Jake Reed, rhp.

I can vouch that Cordy is in camp and pitching for the GCL squad just saw him on Friday. Don't think he got much more than 5K to sign. If I see Wiel this weekend around the complex I'll let ya know. If I'm Cody, I take the offer the Twins have on the table. Way too big of a gamble for him to go back to school at this point.